Cops find car connected to missing teen, Los Angeles homicide

Cops find car connected to missing teen, Los Angeles homicide

Police found a car near the Mexican border on Friday that had been connected to a missing teen and a Los Angeles-area homicide investigation.

The 2013 white BMW with Nevada plates was recovered unoccupied on Friday by San Diego Police near the San Ysidro border of Mexico, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department tweeted.

The drivers, Roman Cerratos and Maricela Mercado, are suspects in the murder of a 32-year old man in the city of Carson in Los Angeles County, the Sheriff’s Department said. Mercado is the mother of 15-year-old Alora Benitez, for whom an Amber Alert was issued on Thursday.

Benitez was last seen around 9 a.m. on Wednesday in Torrance, California, with Mercado, 40, and Cerratos, 39, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

The homicide victim, Jeffrey Appel, was found dead in a white Audi in Carson at around 7 a.m. on April 16, authorities said.

The two suspects are considered “armed and dangerous, ” according to the Amber Alert poster. “The adults left the South Bay area with the child, Alora Benitez, and could possibly be in the San Diego area.”